Browning (UPI) – An FBI agent and local Indian police Monday were piecing together clues in one of the most brutal murders here in many years.  A policeman was dragged by horse for several miles through brush and rock. 

Dead was Blackfeet Indian Reservation policeman George Comes At Night Jr.  He was killed sometime Sunday. 

Rankin Brown, special Indian police agent here, said the man apparently was struck on the head then tied to the horse.  His mangled body was found in a clump of sagebrush. 

The FBI said it was holding three young men as suspects.  Charges were not immediately filed. 

The three men had reportedly created a disturbance at nearby Heart Butte and Comes at Night struck out on horseback to look for them Saturday night.  Officials were notified by Comes At Night’s wife late Saturday night that he had not reported home and search was begun. 

His horse and parts of blood-stained clothing were found several miles from the body, and officers said the track where the policeman had been dragged was clearly visible through the brush and dust on the prairie. 

Wyse said he hopes to establish, among other things, by what means Comes at Night died, and “we may or may not be able to determine by whose hands he died.  That depends on the official evidence released.

Comes at Night was the Indian Policeman whose mutilated body was found near Heart Butte Sunday by two young boys, Joe Almsback and Harold Wippert.

Investigation revealed the had apparently been struck on the head with a blunt instrument, quite possibly a pistol.  He was also dragged for a mile and a half behind a horse.

Although Pondera County officials were the first on the scene and conducted first preliminary investigations, the case came under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and FBI officers were at the scene by mid-afternoon Sunday.

Three men were arrested the same day in connection with the brutal slaying and they were brought to Great Falls Monday for arraignment before a U.S. commissioner, since the commissioner at Browning is out of the state.  The three are Robert J. Grant, 27; Francis Evans Jr., 23, and Vernon Spotted Eagle, 17.

Harry Morris deputy sheriff from Dupuyer, and an Indian Policeman from Browning, were the first to arrive at the scene after the body was found.  Morris told the following story:

It was shortly before noon the two Indian youths found the body.

Rope marks on the deceased man’s legs indicated his attackers had tied his feet together before starting to drag him behind the horse.  Morris said there were footprints along the way in various places.

The undersheriff went on to say Comes at Night was dragged from a point just west of Heart Butte to a place about a mile and a half away which was just above the Joe Crawford ranch on Whitetail Creek.

Monday the body was taken to Great Falls where a pathologist, Dr. John Pfaff, performed an autopsy.  Wyse later stated they determined the death was caused by a blow on the head, and he listed as “contributory factors” abrasions and contusions to “the torso and extremities.”

A puzzler was that two pistol grip plates were found, one on each side of the body, and the autopsy revealed these could have come from the gun that could have been used in delivering the fatal blow to the forehead.

Jurors that will serve on the coroner’s jury Saturday afternoon are: John Tatsey, Jim Weazelhead, Louie Redhead, Terry McKinley, Douglas Anderson and Iren DeStaffany.

Wyse said the body was transferred Monday evening to Browning where funeral arrangements are being handled by Beck Funeral home.

George Comes at Night Jr., 25, was born February 26, 1937 in Browning, the son of George and Agnes Comes at Night of Heart Butte who survive him.  He is also survived by his wife.